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User blog:L1242092/WHY Boost tokens are 20% per stack
Sometimes, developers make mistakes. Sometimes, people are stubborn. Sometimes, you have to make an in-depth numerical analysis with visual aids to make a point. This may be a time when all of these things happen at once. The Problem The game currently has two conflicting reports on how effective Boost tokens are. If you look at a bee's profile, the description for a Red or Blue Boost will describe them as boosting pollen gain by 15%. But, if you pick up a token and hover over the icon in the bottom-left, you will see that one stack sets pollen gain to x1.2, or a 20% boost. Obviously, the boost can't be both 15% and 20% per stack at the same time, so which is it? Well, it could actually be neither! In any case, some field testing is necessary to determine the truth. The Method I equipped the Scooper and went out to fields with different sizes of colored flowers. I found patches of adjacent single, double, and big flowers and collected from each of them to set a baseline. I then gathered five and ten stacks of a colored boost and gathered from similar pairings of flowers. To test whether pollen boosts made a difference, I swapped out my Riley Guard for a Looker Guard and did red flowers a second time. I also occasionally used Baby Love to get even higher numbers. I currently have all top-end gear and Ace badges in each area that provides bonus pollen. This should provide an even benefit to each color that scales up evenly, no matter what level of boost I have, but it could also result in some minor rounding error. The same can be said for all Instant Conversion that I have. The Data Setup 1 Scooper, Riley Guard BoostTest_Red_Riley_Single_Base.jpg|Two single flowers, no boost: 6 pollen BoostTest_Red_Riley_Double_Base.jpg|Two double flowers, no boost: 12 pollen BoostTest_Red_Riley_Big_Base.jpg|Two big flowers, no boost: 18 pollen BoostTest_Red_Riley_Single_5x.jpg|Two single flowers, ×5 boost: 12 pollen BoostTest_Red_Riley_Double_5x.jpg|Two double flowers, ×5 boost: 24 pollen BoostTest_Red_Riley_Big_5x.jpg|Two big flowers, ×5 boost: 36 pollen BoostTest_Red_Riley_Single_10x.jpg|Two single flowers, ×10 boost: 18 pollen BoostTest_Red_Riley_Single_10xLove.jpg|Two single flowers, ×10 boost, Baby Love: 36 pollen BoostTest_Red_Riley_Big_10x.jpg|Two big flowers, ×10 boost: 54 pollen BoostTest_Red_Riley_Big_10xLove.jpg|Two big flowers, ×10 boost, Baby Love: 107 pollen Setup 2 Scooper, Looker Guard BoostTest_Red_NoRiley_Single_Base.jpg|Two single flowers, no boost: 5 pollen BoostTest_Red_NoRiley_Double_Base.jpg|Two double flowers, no boost: 10 pollen BoostTest_Red_NoRiley_Big_Base.jpg|Two big flowers, no boost: 15 pollen BoostTest_Red_NoRiley_Big_5x.jpg|Two big flowers, ×5 boost: 30 pollen BoostTest_Red_NoRiley_Single_10x.jpg|Two single flowers, ×10 boost: 15 pollen BoostTest_Red_NoRiley_Double_10x.jpg|Two double flowers, ×10 boost: 30 pollen BoostTest_Red_NoRiley_Big_10x.jpg|Two big flowers, ×10 boost: 45 pollen BoostTest_Red_NoRiley_Big_10xLove.jpg|Two big flowers, ×10 boost, Baby Love: 89 pollen Setup 3 Scooper, Bucko Guard BoostTest_Blue_Single_Base.jpg|Two single flowers, no boost: 6 pollen BoostTest_Blue_Double_Base.jpg|Two double flowers, no boost: 12 pollen BoostTest_Blue_Big_Base.jpg|Two big flowers, no boost: 18 pollen BoostTest_Blue_Single_5x.jpg|Two single flowers, ×5 boost: 12 pollen BoostTest_Blue_Double_5x.jpg|Two double flowers, ×5 boost: 24 pollen BoostTest_Blue_Big_5x.jpg|Two big flowers, ×5 boost: 36 pollen BoostTest_Blue_Big_5xLove.jpg|Two big flowers, ×5 boost, Baby Love: 72 pollen The Results I present to you the following system of equations: * 5(1 + 0x) = 5 * 5(1 + 5x) = 10 * 5(1 + 10x) = 15 * 6(1 + 0x) = 6 * 6(1 + 0x) * 2 = 12 * 6(1 + 0x) * 3 = 18 * 6(1 + 5x) = 12 * 6(1 + 10x) = 18 * 6(1 + 10x) * 2 = 36 * 6(1 + 10x) * 3 = 54 Question: what value of "x" solves this system? I'll give you a hint: it's not 15%. In terms of rounding error, it took reaching a multiplier over 12 for such an error to show up, suggesting that the base gather rate of the Scooper from one single colored flower is less than 1/48 below 3 (2.9791666...). Of course, we could just find the actual value arithmetically (2 * (1 + .09 + .15 + .25) = 2.98). Final Thoughts How did this happen? Onett probably changed the value given by boosts at some point. Judging by the history of several bee pages, the value used to be 15% and got updated at some point to 20%, but updating the description of the boost wasn't done. Despite the wiki being good at documenting a lot of changes, this change didn't make it into the Updates page. Memory is fallible, but I recall a now-deleted page prior to the last major update that discussed changes in various collector prices. It may have been around the same time as that. It would fall in line with behavior Onett has taken since release to bring the value of Bomb and Boost tokens to be more balanced (by nerfing Bombs and buffing Boosts, though the Bomb nerf may have been a precursor to the release of the Bomb-buffing Cobalt and Crimson Bees). Is this a bug? Who knows? When errors between stated values and actual values happen, it usually happens in one manner, and whichever manner is out of place is said to be the one that is incorrect. In this case, we have two stated values for the boost in-game, and one of them lines up with the field tests. The other value is therefore out of place and likely needs changing. Because that is confined to a statement, it falls closer under the category of "typo" or "oversight" rather than a bug. Category:Blog posts Category:Blog posts